My friend Chrissy has been marketing her independent pattern line called Gardiner Yarn Works for some time now. She has also been getting published in Interweave Knits quiet a bit and is starting to really get some good name recognition going. So, she decided the timing was right to purchase some booth space for TNNA and see how it would go.
She asked me to help and I said sure. I have enjoyed helping her a little bit with sales and thought it would be a great chance to get a peak inside of a TNNA show.
Since the show was in Long Beach I ended up deciding to head down a few days early to spend some time with friends of mine in Los Angeles. In total, I was away from home for 8 days, the longest since I became a mother! I love my children so much, but boy was it nice to get a break and be just a grown-up for a few days!
Anyway, back to TNNA. Here is a picture of Chrissy's booth. Unfortunately it's not a great picture, but you get the idea. She purchased a half booth, which was just the right size for this time. I think the plan is to get a full size booth next time.
Overall, it seems the show was pretty successful for her. We picked up some good clients and made lots of contacts. It would have been great if she had been an instant, huge success, but really she did pretty well for her first show and will, I think, do even better next time.My impressions of TNNA are that it is huge, as I had expected. One thing that did surprise me was that there were about equal numbers of needle point and yarn related booths. I had no idea needle point was such a big deal. Some of the hand painted canvases were amazing!
It was also a real trip to see and meet so many people who are famous in the knitting world. Since Chrissy is getting to be somewhat well known and is on the board of the Association of Knitwear Designers, she knows a lot of these people and many would just stop by the booth the say "hi".
I have debated whether to drop a few names or not and think I will. Why not - it's my blog, right? I met Eunny Yang, Debbie Stoller, Margaret Fisher, Cookie A., Kim Werker, Clara Parks, Shannon Oakey, Susan and Jill Wolcott, Chris de Longpre of Knitting at Knoon, Cat Bordhi, Annie Modesitt and the lovely Casey and Jessica from Ravelry. I also met tons of "up and coming" folks who were delightful, some other folks who I'm sure are "famous" but whose names I did not recognize and many wonderful shop owners and buyers.
Actually, here is a picture from the dinner Chrissy and I had with Casey and Jessica from Ravelry. They were so nice, they even paid for dinner! Thanks again Jess and Casey! The other woman in the picture is another up and coming designer named Keri McIntyre. I just realized I don't think I have ever posted a picture of myself on my blog. For the one or two of you who don't know me in "real life", I am the one in the middle on the right. Boy I look goofy in that picture!
Overall, it was a fantastic trip. I hope to get to go again with Chrissy in June, but we'll see what the hubby says. It is nice to be home though.
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